There are presently available a number of storage racks which serve specialized functions for the storage of various sized and shaped structures. Within this field, there have been several developments involving modularized racks which permit the erection of a storage rack to accommodate a given quantity of materials to be stored for purposes of efficiency and economics in terms of minimizing the amount of lost warehousing space. In this connection, patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,078 shows a modularized-type storage rack which is employed for the storage of flat sheet materials. Materials of this nature would include wood and fiber-based board products, glass, plaster board, and other such types of materials which are mass produced in large sheets. Hence, while the development of the storage racks has progressed to the point where such racks may be erected on a modularized basis thereby to erect only the number of storage racks necessary for a given quantity of materials, the problem of handling these sheets has remained basically unchanged. In short, the common practice is to simply employ manual labor and to physically store and remove the flat sheets from the subject storage rack. This obviously is not only time consuming, but is economically wasteful.
The problem of storage and handling of such flat sheet materials is quite prominent in the manufacturing operations where such sheets are manufactured. It will be appreciated that in order to keep pace with the automated machinery which manufactures flat sheet materials such as laminates and the like, it is desirable to have transport and handling equipment which can handle the sheets as efficiently as the equipment which manufactures them. The present invention, therefore, is mainly concerned with the problem of the handling and transport of a flat sheet material to and from storage racks of the type indicated hereinabove.